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Karp: Self Titled LP

When I first started listening to this, I heard the screamy vocals, the dirty punky guitar riffs, and the aggressive music. And then I find out that Jared Warren, who is now in Melvins, was in this band from a suburb of Olympia, and I’m all, yeah, this is totally awesome, kinda reminds me of Moistboyz. And then a few songs in I’m thinking holy crap do these guys enjoy bass frequencies at all?

Wikipedia has them as a three-piece, so maybe there’s not even a bass in the band, though I think I can kind of hear it when I listen really closely on really good headphones. But it’s not just the lack of that instrument. It’s like everything on here comes through a mid-pass filter. Every sound is in the same upper-mid frequency range we use for human speech. All you hear from the drums is the snare and the initial hits of the cymbals. The vocals are just scream-talking at you. Which is kind of fine, but not for an entire album. This album is the definition of fatiguing.

It’s good in small doses, but I don’t ever need to listen to this from start to finish again. Not even as good as the sum of its parts.

Bacon Industry – First impressions were that this was going to be totally awesome, I just needed to buckle up and enjoy the ride. Of course, after listening to the album a few times you realize it’s awesomeness is only initial-hit deep and you get the review you have here. God, such a great start, I hate to take this down to open, it just ends up not being a very dynamic song in the end.

Forget The Minions – I think the Despicable Me movies could use this song. Would be awesome in those movies. Slow start. Too long, but the riffs are good throughout, so we’ll keep it full.

Bastard Of Disguise – “Ding dong fucking with your head.” But that’s the best part. Sound is so ridiculously muffled here.

Octoberfleshed – Goes way too long at the end. Or at least at the near-end, because with 0:40 left it goes into an awesome riff.

D & D Fantasy –

We Ate Sand – Slowin’ it down finally, and producing what is the best song on the album. A bit hard to mix due to a slow start, but I’m up to the challenge.

Spelling Trouble – Awesome for the last 40 seconds or so, but completely unremarkable up until then.

J Is For Genius – Has a great start and a great ending, but, like so much of the album, it’s just too much, this time in the middle.